Life Is A Masquerade
by GoGoLexiRanger
Summary: Juliet Van Huessen is the new girl at Tribeca Prep, she's shy, a bookworm, and doesn't really try to make friends with any of the other seniors. At the masquerade ball something happens that causes Juliet to question everything she knows...
1. New Home, Same Old Rules

1. New Home, Same Old Rules:

"_Life is a Masquerade_

_No one shows their true face until the clock strikes midnight"_

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><p>I looked around me, the floor of our new house that belonged to me was totally and completely empty. I've hated moving, but here we were, four months after moving once, moving again. This time I could only hope that it would be more permanent. I just had a feeling about New York, a feeling that it was going to go well, and be perfect. I would just chalk it up to intuition, or instinct, but I know better, I know that I am not an ordinary person who makes ordinary assumptions.<p>

I opened one of my many boxes with the exact-o knife that was laying on top of it. Inside it where my books. I let out a sigh of relief, happy that they had made it through the move successfully. I pulled each of the books out individually, examined them and placed them on the bookshelves in my study.

When my parents decided we were moving to New York City they had bought the largest brown stone they could find in the city, this brownstone just happened to be on Waverly Place and I had more square footage on my floor than in most penthouse apartments. There are enough floors in our new home, that each of us kids get one, and our parents get one to themselves as well. I am the second youngest of four, but my older brothers don't live with us anymore, Othello is ten years older than I, and Benvolio is eight years older than I, so I get my own floor, my little sister Hero gets her own floor as well, Mom and Dad get a floor, and the left over floor that isn't the main living area or the basement is split in half for Othello and Benvolio when they visit.

My floor has my bedroom, a dressing room, a large bathroom, a small kitchenette with a mini fridge, an enormous study, a living room, a TV room, a small breakfast nook for eating, a music room, and an extra room that I am thinking of making an artist's studio, or something similar to that.

After putting all the books away in the den, I moved on to another box.

"Jules, can you help me?" Hero asked her long red hair flowing away form here as she ran into the main sitting room of my floor.

Hero is only seven years old, making Othello twenty years older than her, Benvolio eighteen years older than her, and me ten years older than her. Our parents have never been big fans of having children close together age wise, unless it would work for them in the public eye. Hence the large age differences between Othello, Benvolio and I, and between Othello, Benviole, me, and Hero.

"Sure Eliza what do you need?" I asked my baby sister.

Hero's full name is Hero Elizabeth Van Huessen, when she was four she came to me complaining about the name Hero, and that she wanted to be called something normal. Ever since I have been calling her Eliza, acting as if Elizabeth is her full name not Hero. Something Mom and Dad never bothered to do.

"I don't want to live on a floor all by myself. Can I live up here with you?" She asked with an innocent look on her face as she sat down on one of the couches in the room.

"Eliza." I began as I sat down next to her. She knew very well that she couldn't sleep on the same floor as me every night, we would have sleepovers on weekends and over the summer on one floor or the other as we always did but with the wings of our past houses, but she couldn't live here. "You know that you can't stay here all the time. Mom and Dad got such a big house so you can be able to go off by yourself and become your own person, without too much absorption from everyone else."

"Jules. That makes no sense." The seven year old said as she looked up at me with her big blue eyes.

"You're just saying that because I said absorption." I answered, sticking my tongue out at my little sister and lightly stroking her long deep red hair. "If it makes you feel any better you're bedroom is right below mine, and you can always send me a message through the intercom, no matter what time it is." I added reassuringly.

"Juliet, Hero, it is time for dinner." Our mother's voice cackled over the intercom.

"Come on Eliza, let's go eat." I said with a smile, taking my little sisters hand and leaving my floor of the house to go to the main level and the dining room.

The two of us sat down at the long dining table, and I started to shovel food on both of our plates. Tonight we were having angel hair pasta, with marinara sauce, meatballs, and freshly baked Italian bread, with an option of a salad with Italian dressing on the side.

Eliza and I both started to eat in silence, Mom may have been the one to call us down to dinner, but she was not eating at the table, she wasn't even at the table, and neither was Dad. It was just Eliza and I like usual.

After about ten minutes of eating Mom and Dad finally showed up and got themselves some food and they began to eat on the opposite end of the table.

"Hero, Juliet, we have something to tell you." Dad said after he ate half of his plate of pasta and two of his three meatballs. "Your mother and I are going to be flying back and forth between here and our home in LA to work on our newest projects, but you two cannot come with us because we will be so busy, but you cannot live here by yourselves, as neither of you are of age." Dad added.

My Mom is Cindy Van Huessen (originally Marcum), the famous actress and singer, and my Dad is Alucard Van Huessen, the famous producer, director, and screen writer. According to Mom and Dad the two met on one of Dad's many successful movies and fell in love. I believed this completely when I was younger, but when I got older I realized how big of a pile of crap it is. Mom and Dad got married because Mom was knocked up and they are the ultimate power couple. They moth have boyfriends and girlfriends on the side and the other just doesn't give a shit. It is terrible, and I refuse to join the 'family business' no matter how much both of them push me.

"And there are my grandbabies!" A woman shouted as the double oak doors to our large dining room were thrown open.

In walked my Grandmother, Miss Myrtle Mae Melanie Marcum, Mom's Mom. Grandma'ma, as we lovingly call her, couldn't be more different than mom. She was a Broadway actress who divorced her first husband the moment he cheated on her, and went on to get married six more times. She is always brutally honest, and she actually genuinely cares about other people. Whenever Grandma'ma comes and stays with us, all of the rules that we are supposed to have go away, because she understands that we are never going to become fully functioning independent beings if we aren't allowed to make our own decisions.

"GRANDMA'MA!" Eliza shrieked as she jumped out of her chair and gave Grandma'ma a huge hug. I got out of my chair as well and gave our grandmother a hug.

"Ahem." Dad said clearing his throat giving Eliza a very pointed look as the two of us sat back down. "Myrtle Mae will be staying with us in this house full time. The same rules still apply, as you both know very well. That is all, you can leave now." Dad said fluttering his hand at us in a dismissive gesture.

"Grandma'ma, can we make cookies tomorrow?" Eliza asked happily with a look of pure excitement on her face.

"Yes Hero sweetie we can." Grandma'ma said as a smile before beckoning us out of the dining room.

* * *

><p>The next morning my alarm clock woke me up at exactly seven o'clock. Today was my first day of my senior year of High School at Tribeca Prep, a month into school. Eliza was also starting school at the elementary school right next to my new High School.<p>

I pulled the covers of my large queen sized bed off of me and stretched my arms out while yawning. I got out of the bed and walked over to my dresser. On the dresser was my outfit for the day (I always pick out my clothes the night before), a white mini dress with a flowing skirt, three quarter length sleeves, and a floral embroidery print, black tights, and a pair of brown ankle booties. I put on the dress, tights, and shoes quickly before turning to my hair. I took my honey blonde waves out of their long side braid and brushed them out softly with a round brush. They fell in the right place and I started to apply small amounts of make up, liquid foundation, a little bit of cover-up, some eyeliner, a touch of mascara, the smallest bit of eye shadow, lots of chap stick, and just enough lip gloss to add a touch of color. I then moved on to jewelry. I put on the leather charm bracelet that Eliza had given me for my 16th birthday, a ring that I had gotten from Eliza for my 17th birthday, and a necklace that had a triangle pendant with an oval in the middle that I had made when I was little in arts and crafts class. I grabbed my new bag for school stuffed full of whatever supplies I could possibly need and headed downstairs to the main floor.

"Good morning Juliet." Mom said as she sipped a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

"Morning mom." I replied tiredly. I pulled out the leftover pasta from last night and threw it into a bag for lunch, I did the same for Eliza.

A few minutes later, as I ate honey nut cheerios in milk, Eliza came down skipping gleefully, her dark red hair streaming behind her and her blue eyes shining with happiness.

"Good morning Mommy." Eliza said as she gave mom a huge hug. "Good morning Jules." She added giving me an enormous hug as well.

"Morning Eliza." I said as Mom said "Good morning Hero."

"Ah and here are my girls." Dad said as he entered the kitchen. He gave us each a hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Now before you two leave for school, we need to go over the rules." He began sternly. "Rule number 1-" Dad added but I cut him off.

"Don't become friends with anyone. Rule number 2, use your fame to your advantage but don't let people take advantage of you because of it. Rule number 3, never offer people autographs. Rule number 4, do not participate in any extracurricular activities. Rule number 5, never find a date or like a boy. Rule number 6, get the best grades that can be achieved, no matter what. And Rule number 7, don't have fun or enjoy school at all." I interrupted, listing off the rules that both of our parents insisted on, just for school. There were many more for everyday life, such as never let the press see you at any time unless it has been deemed an appropriate time by the family's publicist, and other stupid rules that have been restricting my life since I was born.

"Juliet. Do not behave that way." Dad said with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Why not. You know it's true. Come on Eliza, let's get going the car is waiting for us." I said as I took my little sister's hand and lead her outside.

The two of us got into the limo that was waiting for us and it headed down Waverly Place until it arrived at Tribeca Prep and Waverly Elementary.

"Thanks Dan." I said to the driver with a smile as the two of us got out of the limo. Dan tipped his cap and smiled.

I kept hold of Eliza's hand and took her to the main office of the elementary school, which thankfully started earlier than Tribeca Prep did.

"How can I help you?" One of the four women in the main office of the school asked me.

"Hi, I am just here to let you know that my little sister Hero Elizabeth Van Huessen is here for her first day in the second grade." I said wit ha smile to the woman.

I could tell by the look on her face that she recognized the last name Van Huessen but couldn't place it at the moment. "Oh yes of course, if you just come with me Hero, I can take you straight to your class room." The woman said with a cheery and friendly smile.

"I'll see you at home Jules." Eliza said with a huge toothy grin.

"By Eliza." I replied with a smile as I gave her a quick hug and made sure she had her bag with her lunch in it.

After Eliza walked out of sight with the secretary I exited the school and headed into Tribeca Prep. How my parents had decided on sending the two of us to public schools I had no idea, but I also had zero problems with it. I would much rather be with normal teenagers than Private School snobs who only care about themselves and how much money you or your family has.

I walked around the hallways absentmindedly trying to find the main office so I could get my schedule and locker number.

"ALEX!" A boy shouted before running right into me and knocking me over. "I am so sorry. It's just my sister, she likes to- here let me help you." The boy said holding out his hand which I took gingerly and let go of the moment that I was back to standing up.

The boy who had run into me and helped me up was tall, at least 5'10". He had dark brown hair that could arguably be black-brown, and bright blue gray eyes. He was attractive to say the least, but in a nerdy way, that just made me think he was quite handsome.

"It's no problem." I said shyly. Around my own family, I am crazy and loud, but around everyone else, I am shy as anything. "Thank you-for helping me up." I added quietly.

"I did knock you over." The boy said with a forced laugh. He seemed to find this situation just as awkward as I did. "Are you new?" He asked curiously. He had an honest curiosity in his eyes, that I got the feeling that he was a science or math person.

"Yes. Could you please tell me where the main office is?" I asked him quietly focusing more on playing with my bracelet than looking at him.

"Sure, go down this hallway, make a left, then a right, and another right, and it should be the first large room on your left." The boy said with a smile as he pointed me in the direction of the right hallway.

"Thank you." I answered with a slight smile and headed down the hallway.

"I'm Justin by the way!" He shouted down the hall.

I knew it was mean and completely uncalled for but I acted like I didn't hear him. As much as I hated my parents stupid rules, I still followed them, if I didn't my parents would no right away and the punishments they could cook up were not worth it.

I walked down the hallway he had directed me to and after following his directions I soon found myself in the main office.

"Hi, I'm the transfer student, Juliet Rosalind Van Huessen, I need to get all of my information, my schedule, locker, and combo." I said to the secretary closest to me who had motioned that I come towards her with a nod of her head.

"Of course, it is a pleasure to meet you Juliet. Here is your schedule, your locker number and combination, and a map of the school. And when you get a chance, please tell your Dad that his last movie was excellent, and your Mom that the last CD was superb." The woman said with a carefree smile.

"I will." I said softly. "Thank you." I added leaving the office.

I followed the map and made it successfully to my first period class, which happened to be AP Literature and Composition, right after the announcements finished. I walked in, explained quickly to the teacher that I was the new students, the teacher happened to be a huge fan of Mom and had a cow.

"Class! Class! Pay attention or I will make you write another essay on _Jane Eyre_!" The teach, Ms. Windom said giddily. "This is our new student, Miss Juliet Van Huessen, her parents are Cindy and Aulcard Van Huessen the famous singer and actress and the famous screen writer, director, and producer!" The teacher said excitedly. Everyone applauded politely and I could tell that some of them recognized my parent's names. "Juliet you can sit in the front right here." Ms. Windom added pointing to a seat that was right next to the boy from earlier, Justin.

I sat down at the desk, pulled out a pencil and my battered copy of _Jane Eyre_, I had gone slightly overboard with the annotating of it over the summer. I looked up at Ms. Windom, who had thankfully started teaching and tried my hardest to ignore the seemingly sweet boy who tried to say hi for all of first block.

* * *

><p>The first day of school had dragged by. Justin was in every single one of my classes, and in every class I felt bad when I had to ignore him. He offered to eat lunch with me and I told him that I couldn't, I ended up eating lunch by myself in the library. I would kill to have one friend, just one to eat lunch with day in and day out, and I couldn't because of my parents stupid rules, their micromanaging and controlling of their children's lives, preventing anything from happening, saving us for whatever marriage they were planning to orchestrate with other celebrity parents. He probably thought I was just being a stuck-up spoiled rich kid of celebrities, that I didn't want to be friends with him because he was from a middle class family, that killed me, it had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with me.<p>

I put the stuff I didn't need to take home with me into my locker and prepared to close it, when something hit me like a ton of bricks.

I saw a boy with brown hair and that was covered in hair, he looked like a werewolf. The boy was fighting with a girl with long brown hair and brown eyes, a boy with light brown hair and brown eyes, and Justin, against a man who looked dark and mysterious with a boy who looked to be about our age with red hair and hazel eyes. All of them were fighting against each other, the girl, the boy, and Justin were all holding what looked like wands and firing spells at the other boy who hand a wand as well. Before I knew what was happening my hand banged into the locker door and everything went black.

I slowly opened my eyes a moment later and saw that I was on the floor. I looked up and saw that Justin was standing over me offering a hand.

"Are you okay?" He asked sincerely.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just wasn't paying attention and my head banged into my locker door." I answered as I took his hand, and let go of it again the moment I was back on my feet. I slammed my locker shot, picked up my bag and started to steam line it out of the school. Before I exited the school however I turned back to Justin. I put my hand on his arm lightly. "Thank you." I said giving him a soft smile, hoping with every nerve of my body that he could understand somehow, by looking in my eyes, everything that was going on in my life...

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><p><strong>an: Here is chapter one? Thoughts? Questions? Send them to me in a review! This is obviously quite AU, but I really like how it is going so far. :)**

**xoxo,**

**Lexi**


	2. Gone

2. Gone:

The next two weeks of school went by quicker than I had expected. Every morning I woke up at seven o'clock, got dressed, applied slight make-up, and put on my jewelry, went downstairs, said good morning to my parents (Grandma'ma was working at one of the Broadway shows deeper in the city as a favor to a friend), made lunch for myself and Eliza, got into the car with Eliza, dropped her off at her school, got out at my school, and ignored Justin as much as I could.

Following the rules had never been a real challenge for me. Here was this sweet boy, who just wanted to me friend, who I couldn't talk to in anyway that was more than polite. This boy who had been on the first vision that I had had since moving to New York, the vision that haunted my dreams and wouldn't go away. In a nutshell, being a seer sucks. This boy who I couldn't even talk to in more than a polite way without breaking the rules, the boy who I desperately wanted to get to know, to find out why this huge fight was going to occur with him and four others against two people, but I knew that I couldn't.

When I went to kindergarten-3rd grade in Tennessee following the rules hadn't been a problem. Everyone just saw me as the shy girl that was the daughter of two celebrities. We lived in LA for 4th grade-7th grade, and keeping the rules perfectly intact and followed had been no problem, everyone ignored each other at the private school I went to. 8th grade-Sophomore year in Spain had been no problem, everyone just accepted that I wasn't a strong Spanish speaker and I didn't want to say anything wrong. Junior year until now, in DC had been no problem either. The rules had always been easy for me to follow until now.

"Good morning..." I began as I entered the kitchen that morning. I needed to get cracking on me and Eliza's lunches, we hadn't had any leftovers from dinner last night because Mom and Dad insisted upon having some old friends over, so I was going to have to make them by hand. I was met by a strange silence, usually someone at least mumbles at me in the morning when I say my greeting. I looked around the kitchen and saw that it was completely empty. "Great." I said to myself. I could only imagine Mom and Dad leaving and forgetting to tell me, not saying goodbye to Eliza, and forgetting to tell Grandma'ma that she would need to actually be home in the morning.

"It is a great morning isn't it sweetie?" Grandma'ma asked as she appeared in the kitchen and made herself of coffee. "Cindy and Aulcard are gone, they needed to go to LA they'll be back on the first few days of November." Grandma'ma added with a smile as Eliza walked into the kitchen rubbing her tired blue eyes.

"Where's mom and dad?" Eliza asked tiredly. At our huge dinner last night, Mom and Dad had insisted that Eliza play the piano and dance for everyone as I played the violin (one of my many string instruments of choice), and she was exhausted now, not having gotten up to bed to go to sleep until one in the morning at the earliest.

"They're in LA Hero." Grandma'ma replied with a smile as I started to make the two of us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Oh." She said slowly with a slight tone of sadness in her voice.

"Grandma'ma," I began, knowing that if our grandmother said yes, this was one of those things that would make Eliza incredibly happy. "Since Mom and Dad are out of town, why don't we got out for dinner to one of the restaurants on Waverly Place tonight?" I asked.

For whatever reason, ever since Eliza was little, she has loved eating out, and I knew that it would be the perfect thing to cheer her up in a time like this, where she was starting to feel slightly abandoned by our parents.

"That is a great idea Juliet. When you get home from school we'll go see a movie and then go out to dinner." Grandma'ma said with a huge grin.

"Really Grandma'ma! Jules, let's get to school, I want this day to go by fast!" Eliza said giddily as she ran out the door.

I followed her with both of our lunches in my hand, shaking my head and laughing. I felt a pain in my forehead and I knew a vision was coming, "Eliza, come back. Take these and go to the car. I'll be there in a minute." I shouted at my little sister. She ran back in and took the lunch bags and headed back out. Grandma'ma came over to me and offered me a glass of water. "Thank you." I said drinking the water quickly. If I can catch a vision coming early enough I don't have a head splitting head ache for the rest of the day, hopefully I caught this one early enough.

The kitchen faded away from me and instead I was in a ball room and there were people dancing everywhere in ballgowns and tuxedos wearing masks. Happy dance music was playing and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I saw a the girl from my vision the one with the long black curls wearing a purple dress dancing with the werewolf from the vision. I wasn't sure if they were the exact people but they looked similar enough to them, that I believed they were. I saw what looked almost like Justin dancing with a girl wearing a deep red dress, that I recognized as my self for a moment. The two of us were dancing in the most carefree fashion I had ever seen, it was the most carefree that I had ever seen myself. The was a man standing in the corner of the dance, wearing a completely black tuxedo, and a black mask that covered his whole face, he was staring at Justin and I dancing like it was his job, and then in a flash he disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and I fell to the ground... The sound of shattering glass brought me back to the kitchen, I had dropped the glass that Grandma'ma had give me, to try and make the vision not as bad. I knew the moment that I came out of it, that the water had not helped.

"Here Juliet." Grandma'ma said handing me a huge water bottle and some migraine medicine. "This should help. Now head off to school." She finished giving me a hug.

I nodded my head, popped the pill in my mouth drank half the bottle of water and left the kitchen. My head was killing me, and I knew that today was not going to be a good day.

* * *

><p>My prediction about the day had been completely and entirely true. The day dragged on, English lasted forever and I couldn't even come up with any coherent statements about <em>Jane Eyre<em> which made no sense because I have read that book from cover to cover so many times. The whole time in English when Ms. Windom asked me questions and I couldn't answer, Justin looked at me with a look of pure concern that almost broke my heart. I had to stop looking at him after the first ten minutes of class I just couldn't take it today.

AP Bio was a disaster. We were supposed to be dissecting frogs today, and the moment I got the scalpel in my hand my head shot up with pain and I couldn't do anything but drop it. I went to the nurse and got some Tylenol in the hopes that it would help but it didn't.

Now it was lunch, it was only noon, and I already just wanted to curl up in bed underneath a rock. I was sitting by myself eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and attempting to read my book, which happened to be _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ by L. Frank Baum, one of my favorites, and a reread. The pain in my head, however, would not let me focus to save my life, I kept getting flashes of the same vision from this morning through the course of the day, and my head was killing me at this very moment.

I reached out to grab my water bottle, and saw that it was missing. I looked up from my book and saw that my water bottle was no where to be seen. I searched my bag and it wasn't their either, I could feel the feverish look come on my face as I tried to find it. I needed water, and I needed it fast.

"Here." A voice said that I recognized a little too quickly as Justin's. Justin handed me my water bottle, it had apparently fallen off of the table when I had grabbed something.

"Thanks." I said as I took the water bottle and drank half of it.

"Are you okay Juliet? You've seemed off all day." Justin asked sincerely as he sat down.

"Yeah I'm fine. I just have a migraine." I said faster than I probably should of. I didn't want Justin to ask questions, but my talking faster than I normally would, I knew that he was going to be suspicious.

"You shouldn't be at school if you have a migraine, how are you even focusing at all right now?" Justin asked curiously and concerned.

"I get migraines a lot. Don't worry I'll be fine, I just have History and Study Hall. Easy classes. I'll be fine." I replied drinking more of my water.

"You should get medication for that."

"I do actually, I took it this morning, but I never miss school, so I wasn't exactly going to miss today now was I? Can you please leave me alone, my head is killing me, and if I can just get through lunch I'll be fine." I answered more annoyed than I wanted to come off as.

"If your medication isn't working than you should go home, come on, I'm taking you to the nurse, and she is going to call your parents and they are going to pick you up even if they are rich and snobby celebrities." Justin said. I totally ignored the insult to my parents, and it didn't even offended me because I knew that it was completely and totally true.

"One problem, my parent's are in LA right now, and it's easier for me to just say at school instead of my Grandma'ma freaking out when the school calls." I said releasing my arm from the grip that Justin had put it in when he tried to yank me up out of the chair I was sitting in. "I'll be fine. Don't worry." I said. Touching his hand that had been on my arm slightly to try and convey my message. I grabbed all of my stuff and headed off to the library praying that he wouldn't follow me and force me to go to the clinic.

* * *

><p>I was able to convince my study hall teacher to let me listen to my iPod while working on my homework, instead of sitting there in the study hall room with everyone chattering loudly. The classical music helped my headache a lot surprisingly, and by the time that I got home it was greatly diminished. That may also have been because Grandma'ma brought my migraine medicine into school so I could take it at the nurse's office.<p>

"JULES! YOU'RE HOME!" Eliza shouted loudly as I entered the kitchen to get a glass of water. Her loud shouted sparked back up my headache and gave me another flash of the vision.

"Hi Eliza." I said softly chugging my glass of water. "Could you quite down a little bit, I have a really bad headache."

"Sorry Jules." Eliza answered whispering as she sat down next to me and gave me a hug.

Eliza and I just sat in the kitchen for a good long while doing our respective homework, me helping Eliza when she needed it, and her helping me occasionally as well, I was still having major issues focusing, my headache had come back at full force the moment I tried to focus on my homework.

"Alright girls, ready for dinner and a movie? Or I guess it is a movie and dinner since we are going to see the movie first." Grandma'ma said as she entered the kitchen with shopping bags hanging on both hands.

"As ready as we're ever gonna be." I replied with a laugh. "Come on Eliza, put your homework away and get your shoes on." I added to my little sister. Eliza followed my directions expertly and obediently. I would have to give her the 'go your own way' speech one of these days, she just listened to easily.

I put on my own shoes and the three of us exited through the kitchen and walked down the busy New York City streets to the closest movie theater. Eliza insisted upon us seeing the latest _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic_ movie, because yes they do make movies of those apparently. It was surprisingly not completely terrible. After the movie we headed back to Waverly Place to find some place to eat dinner at. We considered the Late Nite Bite, but ended up choosing to go to the Waverly Sub Station.

The three of us walked in, and I found my self enthralled by the corny theme of the restaurant. It was decorated to look like a Subway Station. The three of us found our way to an open table and sat down. We looked at the menus for a few moments before I waiter came.

"Welcome to the Waverly Sub Station, what can I get you?" A voice asked that I immediately recognized as Justin's, I couldn't help but to think 'shit', I did not want to deal with Justin right now, and I knew he would ask me how my head is, or how I was, and I was only thankfully that I was with Grandma'ma and Eliza not my parents, because they would have a cow and ground me for the rest of my life, if they were in this situation. "Juliet? It's good to see you how's your head?" Justin asked innocently, not knowing the trouble I would be in later for that simple and friendly remark.

"Hi Justin. It's... um... better... but not really. This is my Grandmother, Myrtle Mae Marcum, and this is my younger sister Hero, but I call her Eliza, as does just about everyone." I replied politely, ignoring my grandmother's stare. "Could I please get some water to start out with?" I asked.

"Sure, and you two?" Justin asked, he had smiled at them politely when they were introduced.

"One Sierra Nevada please." Grandma'ma said with a soft smile. She has always liked beer with her sandwiches.

"Could I please have pink lemonade?" Eliza asked with her adorable smile.

"Got it. I'll be back with those in a few minutes, and then I can get the orders in for your sandwiches." Justin said with a smile and stalked off to the kitchen.

"Juliet. You know the rules." Grandma'ma said sternly as soon as Justin was out of earshot. "I'm going to let this slide because your parents aren't home and you have had an incredibly rough day today, but you cannot let things like that happen Juliet. You know what the rules are, and you know what the consequences are if you break them." Grandma'ma finished just in time for Justin to drop off our drinks. "Thank you Justin." She said with a smile.

"It's no problem Mrs. Marcum. Now what do you all want to eat?" Justin asked with a smile that made his blue gray eyes shined, I had to look purposefully down at my menu to not look into his eyes.

"I'll get the Little Italy." Grandma'ma said with a smile as she handed Justin the menu.

"Can I please have the macaroni and cheese?" Eliza asked exactly how she had with the lemonade. I love my little sister to death, and it is moments like this, that I just cannot get over how adorable she constantly is.

"Sure, so that's a Little Italy, and a Mac & Cheese, what about you Juliet?" Justin asked.

"Oh, I'm not going to get anything, not really a good state to eat, if you get what I'm saying." I replied with the smallest smile I could manage as I handed him the remaining two menus.

"Oh, okay, your food will be ready in ten to fifteen minutes." Justin said with a smile as he walked away.

Grandma'ma didn't bring back up the topic of the rules, or my breaking them for the rest of dinner. Instead, Eliza, her, and I all goofed off and joked around, which included Eliza quoting the movie we had seen. We were all laughing, and I was too even though it was taunting my head even more, and with each laugh I got an enormous shoot of pain.

"I've got one Little Italy, and one Mac & Cheese, who are these going to?" A woman asked us as she held two plates up.

"The Little Italy is me." Grandma'ma said, and the woman put the plate in front of her.

"I got the Mac & Cheese Mrs. Justin's Mom." Eliza said with her goofy grin. That made sense, thinking back on it, if you put the two of them together they look exactly like mother and son.

"There you go sweetie." She said putting the bowl of Mac & Cheese down in front of Eliza. "And you must be Juliet. I'm Theresa Russo, Justin's mother. It's a pleasure to meet you. Justin went to get something for you. Some old family head ache cure or something from his Dad's side of the family, I don't know. Sometimes it's best to not question your kids. Enjoy the food." Mrs. Russo said with a smile and left the table.

I couldn't think of why Justin would whip up an old Family headache cure for me, I mean I would be fine by tomorrow afternoon most likely, I didn't need some old family headache cure, it wouldn't work any better than the migraine medicine.

The three of us sat there eating peacefully, well Eliza and Grandma'ma sat there eating peaceful, I just sat there. It wasn't until they were both nearly done with their food that Justin showed up again, with a piping hot mug of what looked like hot chocolate.

"This is just an old family cure for headaches. I thought it might help." He said with a smile as he took the now empty plates and bowls and handed Grandma'ma the check for the food and drink.

"Thank you." I said with a soft smile as Grandma'ma got up to pay at the register.

While Grandma'ma was paying I took a sip of the hot drink. It was fantastic... at first. It cooled my head and I stopped feeling all of the pain, I saw everything in the Sub Station perfectly and there were no problems, until my head filled with earsplitting pain and I had to bite down hard on my lip to prevent me from screaming. Another vision came to me, the things I saw, the pain I felt for the people they were done to wretched my heart in half and I felt the pain of it. I managed to bring myself out of the vision just enough to tell my grandmother that I needed to get back home right away, she quickly obliged.

The moment we returned to the brownstone, they helped me get back up to my room. I laid down in bed fully clothed and let the vision take over completely. I saw myself being bitten by what looked like a vampire, and my blood falling around in pools around me, my body laying in what looked like an office but was covered with books and things that looked magical. It woke me up many times throughout the night, and every time I would try and reassure myself that this vision was just my mind playing tricks on me, but every time I thought that, that tiny voice of reason in the back of my head chimed in and reminded me that I was a seer, which just made the pain and the visions worse. Because when you're a seer, there is a .01% chance, if not smaller that your vision won't come true, and I know from experience that I can't spend my whole life hoping that one vision will fall in the .01%.

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><p><strong>an: well here was chapter two. I really am loving writing this story, it's strange, almost as if it is writing itself, which as a writer and aspiring author is a blessing because it makes the writing bit a helluva lot easier, but I am just so interested to see where this is going to go, because even though I have the basic idea already I'm not really certain of anything. I referred to _Jane Eyre_ because I am taking AP Lit next year and that is one of the books that we have to read for our summer assignment, I mentioned _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ because it is my favorite book of all time and it will come into play later. I made a _My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic_ movie for my friend Tara, and my other friend Steph, even though they will probably never read this, because Wizards is not their cup of tea the reference is there for them. Lolz. I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, and please remember to review!**

**xoxo,**

**Lexi**

**p.s. to Anna101, in response to your review, the family is not vampires, but there will be a vampire coming into this story later on and it will be explained. :)**

**p.p.s. I am updating this chapter way earlier than I planned because I am leaving for the beach tomorrow, well I guess today technically, and I will be gone for a week and be unable to write or update any of my fics until the evening of the 17th at the earliest, so I thought I'd update this earlier to give y'all something to tide you over. :)**


	3. First Break

3. First Break:

"You're Juliet, the new girl right?" A girl with long red hair and dark brown eyes, wearing a very interesting outfit asked me the following Friday at school. I was at my locker getting ready for orchestra and trying not to make any sort of eye contact with Justin, who kept looking over at me.

"Sorry... um yes." I answered. I was still out of it. I had missed another day of school after my migraine, and I still had a residual headache and a few flashes of various visions going on. It had been hard for me to focus on anything these past few days.

"Harper Finkle." She said with a huge smile as she held out a hand to me.

"Nice to meet you." I said a moment later shaking her hand nervously. I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched, in a more than simply paranoia way, in a way that seemed real and scared me.

"I just wanted to know if you were going to the dance at school tomorrow, I'm on the committee, and we are trying to figure out how many people we will have because there are not tickets." Harper began. "It's a masquerade ball, everything is going to beautifully decorated, and there is a live band playing and everything. At midnight there's going to be an announcement and everyone is going to remove their masks and see who they are dancing with, it should be very fun." She finished with a huge smile on her face.

"I can't. Sorry." I said as nicely as I could. Took my violin in my hand, closed my locker and headed off to the orchestra room.

Once there, five minutes early, I let myself think of how much fun it would be to go to a masquerade. If I could just get Grandma'ma to bend the rules just this once, l could go. At a masquerade no one would know it was me, and as long as I left by midnight, no one would ever know it was me. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to go, and the more I knew that Grandma'ma would say no and refuse to bend the rules. When the bell rang signaling the beginning of class, I banished the thoughts of a night dancing away with a mysterious masked figure, and fleeing before midnight and focused completely on the music I was playing.

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><p>After school, instead of going straight to our brownstone, I headed to Manhattan, via a cab to visit my oldest brother. Othello has lived in the city for quite a few years now, he works as an actor on Law &amp; Order, and found it easier to live in NYC full time as the show films here. Othello and I have never been super close as he is ten years older than me, but we have always been close enough. Having crazy fame obsessed celebrity parents, really helps with the sibling bonding.<p>

"Do you want anything to drink Jules?" Othello asked. The two of us were sitting in his apartment's kitchen. Othello had gotten back from a shorter day of shooting the moment I had arrived at his door, and he was rushing around trying to find something to eat.

"Do you have any peppermint tea? My head's still bothering me." I asked.

"I'll start the water." Othello began putting a kettle on a burner of the stove and turning the burner on. "Grandma'ma called me about that, she said it was one of the worst you've had in awhile." He added sitting back down with left over Chinese food he had just gotten out of the microwave.

"It was really bad." I answered quietly. "You know what, forget about the tea, I think I'm just gonna go back to the house. I've got nothing better to do on a Friday night." I added. I knew what the next question that was going to come out of Othello's mouth was about what I had seen but I did not want to talk about it.

"You know you are welcome here anytime Jules." Othello said getting up and giving me a hug. I'm glad that he went along with me leaving abruptly, Benvolio would've argued with me about it for half an hour at the least.

"I know. Thanks 'thello." I replied giving him a hug, before grabbing my bag and exiting the apartment.

I made my way down to the lobby of Othello's apartment building and out on the street. I manged to catch a cab, and a thought entered my mind. I wanted some peppermint tea, but I didn't want to go home yet, because Grandma'ma would just ask me why I was back from Othello's so soon, and I just did not want to deal with that right now.

"Where to ma'am?" The cabbie asked me with a slight smile.

"The Waverly Sub Station please."

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><p>I walked into the small restaurant about twenty minutes later, traffic had been, to use a phrase, a bitch, on the way down here, the city was starting to get crowded, it's a Friday night which is when a lot of the tourists come down, and everyone is trying to get to their dinner reservations.<p>

The place was crowded, it was a little after 5, and almost every table and sit at the bar was packed. I looked around for Justin and couldn't find him, I just wanted some peppermint tea to go, and he was the only person that worked there that I could recognize and order from.

"Oh you're Justin's friend. Juliet or something right? He will not stop talking about you." A woman said walking up to me, I recognized her in moments as Justin's mom, Mrs. Russo.

"We have a lot of classes together. I was just looking for someone to order from..." I answered. Trying to ignore the fact that Mrs. Russo had called Justin and I friends, I didn't have any friends other than my siblings, that was the way it always was, and the only way it could be for me, according to my parents stupid rules.

"You know what Juliet, go right up those spiral stairs over there, Justin's studying or doing his homework or something, and I'm sure he'd be glad to know you stopped by, and he'll get you whatever you need. Go on then." Mrs. Russo said with a kind smile that I couldn't say no to.

"Oh... okay." I said awkwardly as I made my way to the spiral staircase.

I have never liked spiral staircases, they always freak me out when I climb them, and I am always terrified that I am going to fall and hurt myself while climbing them up. Climbing a spiral staircase in heels, much worse.

"Justin? Justin? Justin? Is anyone up here?" I asked once I finished climbing the stairs.

I was standing in a cozy first floor area that had a kitchen, a small dining area, and a TV room like space. The whole area was very open and cozy, it felt so homey, more homey than I house I had ever lived in had ever felt.

"Juliet?" A voice asked in curious disbelief.

I turned to find where the voice had come from and saw that Justin was standing in front of the refrigerator holding a bowl of something that looked like pasta, I couldn't really tell.

"Hi... Your mom sent up here, I just wanted to order a cup of peppermint tea, but she saw me and told me to come up here. I couldn't exactly say no to her, she just has one of those faces. I mean I know I'm intruding, but I really just need some tea, and then I can be on my way." I answered awkwardly.

"Do you want peppermint tea, or do you want that headache remedy I gave you the other day? Or I think we have some peppermint oil somewhere rubbing that on temples helps headaches too." Justin replied, completely ignore the awkwardness I had shown and trying to be helpful. How he knew that I still had some remnants of my headache I had no idea, but he did.

"Peppermint tea and peppermint oil would be perfect. That hot chocolate stuff just made it worse sadly. How did you know that I still have a headache?" I asked him as he put his bowl of pasta down on the counter and put a kettle on the stove. After he put the kettle on the stove he started to fumble around the cabinets looking for a peppermint tea bag and peppermint oil.

"During Latin this morning when Cody accidentally dropped his book you flinched." Justin answered simply as he continued to rummage through the cabinets.

I remembered when that had happened this morning. It had taken all the energy I had to wake up and get out of bed this morning to get to school, and Latin is first block every other day. The remnants of my headache were much stronger then, and the simple dropping of a book had caused me to flinch and rub my temples.

"Here's the peppermint oil." Justin said hand me a small bottle with an eyedropper like lid.

"Thank you." I said with a small smile. "You are really observant of other people aren't you?"

"I guess. I never really thought about it that way."

Justin was putting a peppermint tea bag into a mug and waiting for the water. I had taken the dropper out of the peppermint oil bottle and dropped a bit of peppermint oil into the palm of my hand. I put my palm up to my left temple and rubbed it in, I then did the same with the other temple. The remnants of my headache were already getting smaller.

"You're tea will be ready in just a few minutes. It should help a bit." Justin replied with a smile as he watched the kettle with determination, almost as if he was ordering it to boil and steam already.

"Thank you so much Justin." I answered with a slight smile, rubbing the peppermint oil into my temples even more.

The two of us stayed in silence while the water boiled in the kettle and steamed. The silence wasn't awkward surprisingly it was just there, not floating around the room like silences tend to. It was actually comforting. For once someone wasn't asking me a ton of questions about my vision(s) that had caused the headache, because he didn't know about the visions. It was just so nice. Justin poured the hot water into the mug with the tea bag, moved the bag around a few times and handed it to me.

"Thank you." I said softly and started to drink the hot tea, which soothed my throat and somehow worked magic on my headache at the same time. "How do you know so much about headache cures?" I asked him curiously.

"My little sister Alex, when she was younger she used to get really bad headaches all the time, we found out later it was an allergy to carrots, but then we thought they were just random headaches, and I found all of these cures and stuff online and tried them until we found ones that worked really well. We keep everything on hand just in case someone gets a really bad headache so we can take care of it quickly before it gets worse." Justin answered with a soft smile as he went back to eating his bowl of pasta. "Juliet, this is a really random question, but how much have you seen of New York since you moved here?" Justin asked a few minutes later, after he had finished eating his pasta.

"Um..." I began sipping my tea faster than I had planned on. "Not very much. And when I see not very much, I mean we went to the Statue of Liberty once during the day a few weekends ago, and when I say we I mean Eliza and I." I answered nervously.

"Well there's no time like the present. Come on, let's go see the city." Justin said with a devilish smile.

"Oh I don't know Jusitn. I mean I should probably be heading home soon, I don't want Grandma'ma and Eliza to start worrying about me." I replied, starting to get slightly frantic. Going to the sub station to get peppermint tea and ending up in their house was one thing, but going around New York with Justin, that was something that could easily get me into a lot of trouble.

"Come on Juliet, on a night like this, the city is even more beautiful, plus I've lived here my whole life so I know where all the places are that tourists never go to. What have you got to lose?" Justin asked me.

"Fine." I said with a slight groan. All the while thinking, 'you have no idea'.

* * *

><p>Justin was right, with so many people in the city it made it even more beautiful. He also knew the best cheap and good New York pizza joints, the best shops, the best spots in Central park, everything. We went to all of those places, walked up and down fifth avenue, went to Rockafellar plaza, and went ice skating. It was great and fun, and at the end of it he brought me to my brownstone.<p>

"Thank you Justin, this was wonderful." I said with the biggest smile I had ever had on my face when talking to someone who wasn't Eliza.

"It's no problem, the city is truly beautiful and everyone deserves a chance to see it like this." He replied with a large smile himself.

"I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. I've got to go, Grandma'ma's probably worried sick, I wouldn't stay at Othello's this late and she knows it." I began with a slight laugh. I couldn't help but get that feeling as if I was being watched again, I tried to push it to the back of my mind, and write it off as obscure and random paranoia, but it wouldn't work. Instead I tried to focus on what I was saying to Justin. "Thank you again."

I walked over to the front door of the brownstone and put my hand on the door know. Justin grabbed my wrist lightly before I could turn the handle.

"Juliet, wait. I was wondering if you were going to the masquerade tomorrow?" He asked, stepping up right next to me on the front stoop.

"I don't think so. But maybe. If I do go, I'll be the one in the white mask." I answered remembering an old white mask that I had from when Mom and Dad had gone to Mardi Grais without us one year, and brought us all back antique masks to try and make themselves feel better. "Goodbye Justin." I added with a smile. Looking into his eyes for the first time. His eyes captivated me, and I had to remember that I needed to get inside immediately to pull me away from them. I could see myself easily getting lost in the those eyes, falling for those eyes.

"Goodbye Juliet." He said with the slightest tint of hope as I entered the brownstone.

I walked into the kitchen, planning on grabbing a bit of ice cream down here before heading up to Eliza's floor to prepare for our sure to ensue Friday night sleepover.

"Hello Juliet. Good to see you finally made it home after breaking the rules." Grandma'ma said in a surprisingly not that stern tone.

"Hello Grandma'ma." I answered obediently turning to face my grandmother.

"Oh sweetie, if it were up to me, you would not have to follow those stupid rules, those rules that only you have to follow. To go through life with no real friends for some stupid reason is terrible, who are you to have an adolescence, if you can't have any friends?" Grandma'ma asked me as she stroked the honey blonde hair that had started to fall out of my side french braid.

"Grandma'ma, what do you mean, the rules only I have to follow? I thought all of us kids had to follow those rules?" I asked her very curious.

Her saying this had made me realize that every time Dad had reminded us of the rules he had really reminded me, he never looked at my brothers or Eliza, always straight at me. I remembered Othello having a few girlfriends growing up and it had never been an issue. Eliza had been invited to a birthday party next weekend and I thought nothing of it when it was easily approved for her to go. Either I was being paranoid, Grandma'ma made a mistake in her speaking, or these rules were only for me for some reason.

"Honey, I can't explain it all, it isn't my place, but the rules are only for you, you are the only one that has to follow them, and it kills me." Grandma'ma replied.

"Grandma'ma, that makes no sense, why is it not your place?" I asked her confused utterly and completely.

"I can't explain it to you Juliet, sweetheart. There's a dance at your school tomorrow isn't there? That boy, I saw him ask if you were going. Go Juliet. I have an old dress you can use, you have a mask, have one night to be free, to be a normal teenager."

"Do you mean it?" I asked her with a nervous look on my face.

As much as I wanted to know what was going on, I couldn't help but to think of the vision that I had had a few days ago. The one of me dancing with just in a ball gown, I knew that that vision ended in my fainting, but to dance the night away with Justin sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world to me right now.

"Yes, Juliet. I do." Grandma'ma replied kissing me on the forehead.

* * *

><p><strong>an: well here is chapter 3! Sorry it took so long but I had to work on a few other fics before I got to this one now that I have an actual update schedule set up. Oh goodness, I love to write this story, there are all of these twists and turns that I didn't expect to happen, that are now in my head, and it is almost as if it is writing itself. This chapter actually has a dedication, other than to all of you marvelous reviewers out there, this is dedicated to my bestest friend Meg or IcePRincess013, to anyone that read her fic Life Is A Jungle Gym for BTR, somehow chatting with her on I'm while writing this helped me finish it just before midnight, and she just is always there for me, especially when I am dealing with crap like I was earlier. Thanks Meggy-Mooney for always being there! I love you wifey!**

**xoxo,**

**Lexi**

4. Behind A Mask:


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